José Francisco Martí Zayas Bazán

Son of José Martí, a Dignified Man

Cubans must see José Martí as the human being he was, a revolutionary and father, who loved his Homeland and his son with great affection, to whom he dedicated beautiful pages of love and tenderness, which is why his son was a worthy follower of his example, as he was capable of sacrificing himself for the good of his Homeland, which his father taught him to love, respect, and venerate. Although José Francisco was not raised in a stable and patriotic family home, his father's values were followed by him, which is demonstrated in the actions he carried out throughout his life.
"It is not a matter of changing men, but ideas and procedures, we need a new civic conscience to be reborn within our purified Republic free from old errors, and that it emerge as a regenerated homeland in which all citizens exercise their rights and fulfill their duties in conditions of absolute equality…" José Francisco Martí Zayas Bazán expressed, an idea that demonstrates his thinking regarding the republican Cuba in which he lived most of his life.

"If someone tells you that these pages resemble other pages, tell them that I love you too much to profane you that way," José Martí dedicates this thought to his beloved son José Francisco Martí Zayas Bazán, in which it is demonstrated what his son meant to him, that he was something special, unique, a son venerated and loved above all things. He dedicated a book of poems to him that he titled "Ismaelillo".

Although he was not a great politician, he was an honest military man, he had the merit of fighting for the freedom of his Homeland, acting as a dignified and respectable man.

He was born on November 22, 1878, in Cuba in the home shared by the marriage of José Julián Martí Pérez with his wife, the lovely Camagueyan Carmen Zayas Bazán, they had been married on December 20, 1877 in the Sagrario of the Cathedral of Mexico City. They shared a home in a modest dwelling on Tulipán Street No. 32 in the Cerro neighborhood. He worked in a law office, in the house of Nicolás Azcárate, it was a poor but happy home, and upon the birth of his son they moved to some upper rooms at Industria Street 115 in their own house.

In September 1879 Martí is forced to leave Cuba again toward exile, this is the first separation from his wife and his beloved son who is only ten months old, Carmen could not understand the great sacrifice of her husband in separating from the people he loved most.

In 1880 José Martí arrives in New York, from the very first moment he begins preparing for the new stage of struggle for the homeland, his multiple tasks do not prevent him from trying to arrange his home, so he asks his wife to travel to New York with his son, she arrives on March 3, 1880. From this encounter there is evidence of the impression the child made on his father when he writes to Manuel Mercado: "He does not have that marvelous prematurity that delights vulgar fathers…. He has deep eyes and a broad forehead. But he is soft and simple as befits his months".

The happiness of the home lasts very little time because his wife does not understand the self-denial of her husband for his Homeland, she does not understand poverty and hardship, she wants him to dedicate himself only to her and their son, but he already has a greater duty and dedicates himself almost entirely to it. Carmen returns with her son to Cuba on October 21, 1880 and Martí departs for Venezuela.

There he writes a book dedicated to his son in 1881 and titles it "Ismaelillo" in which are written beautiful pages of love and veneration: "Son frightened of everything I take refuge in you". Martí calls his son: "my little king," "my master," "my steward." What Martí attempts to do is establish a new relationship with childhood. He always keeps his little one in mind, the revolutionary who travels from one side of America to the other seeking support for the independence cause, Martí says that the book "is a toy, as if for my son," adding in his most intimate notes: "since we remain for now with the desire to see Pepito, it is necessary that Ismaelillo come."

Never has a child received such a valuable gift from a poet father. Later both were unhappy, because the boy was educated in Camagüey in the Hispanicizing home of his grandfather and although his mother loved him deeply she could not prevent his aunt, who was mad, from attempting to cut the boy's throat one day for being Martí's son. This mark would be engraved on the sensitive soul of the young man, who only longed for a reunion in his father's arms.

For children José Martí writes the magazine "La Edad de oro" in which he reflects his feelings about the education of the young, perhaps he feels the need to reflect his ideas of love for children, since he could not educate his own. An idea of his absent son is reflected when he says: "Son I am of my son, he remakes me."

The young José Francisco would be with his father on two other occasions, always in the city of New York: the second from December 1882 until March 1885. The third and last, from June 30, 1891 to August 27 of the same year. The common denominator of those visits are: Martí's efforts to entertain his wife and child; and the lack of understanding and non-acceptance of his missionary life on Carmen's part.

The second family reunion is the longest but it also gets cut short. The happiness that Martí enjoys comes to an end, the home falls apart, the wife leaves and takes their son with her. When he returns to the empty nest he is already longing for him to return and in his dreams for the tiny prince he tells him "I can already see myself playing with you. And to make you learn with joy, I am already making you a little teacher's cap, and I am putting spectacles on your laughing nose and I am seating you in a very high chair so that you get used to doing things from on high."

From the last encounter, José Francisco would keep unforgettable memories of his father, reciting his verses to him and speaking of noble sentiments, he is a tall and vigorous young man of 13 years of age. Carmen tries to reorganize the broken home but she does not understand that for her husband his duties to the Homeland come first and the organization of the struggle for freedom, these activities occupy almost all of his time, he cannot then dedicate himself to pleasing his wife in all the duties of the home and in hours of rest with her and his son, this causes him to decide to leave again for Cuba.

The sentiments of José Martí and his dedication to his son can be observed in various ideas expressed by him to his friends, examples of this are:
In a letter to Charles A. Dana in 1882 he tells him: "…my son is my dream" and referring to the book he wrote for him he expresses: "…it is the novel of my loves with my son".8
In a letter to Agustín Aveledo in 1882 he writes speaking about this same subject: "I am not selling this book: it is a matter of the soul (…) thinking of my son my chest fills with jasmines." 9. In these phrases one can appreciate what his absent son meant to him, his nostalgia and longing is evident.

At other moments in his life he also expresses what that piece of his soul meant to him. In 1892 in the newspaper Patria he wrote: "A son is the greatest reward a man can receive on earth" 10 and "A son is the heart." At another moment he wrote: "What does it matter all the serpents of this world if one has a corner with white walls and a pure hand to squeeze, when everything ceases, in silence." The absence of his beloved Pepito always filled his days with nostalgia which did not prevent him from dedicating himself body and soul to preparing for war and uniting Cubans.

In a letter to his son on April 1, 1895 from Montecristi Dominican Republic he tells him:
"Son: Tonight I leave for Cuba: I leave without you, when you should be by my side. As I leave, I think of you. If I disappear on the way, you will receive with this letter the chain watch that your father wore in life. Goodbye. Be just."

This is the last recognized letter written by the father to his son in which there is a message of honesty and nostalgia for the absence and which manifests the misunderstandings of the marriage, these were what led to the definitive separation of the family. The son was educated in Camagüey in the rich house of his paternal grandparents and afterwards with Carmen's aunts, he did not receive in his childhood and adolescence the ideal of his father which was very poorly regarded by the majority of the noble Zayas Bazán family.

When Martí dies the tiny prince was a tall and slender adolescent of seventeen years old entrusted to Dr. Coroalles to enroll in Troy University in the United States where he had traveled again with his mother.

In a letter to Gonzalo de Quesada dated June 4, 1895 José Francisco expresses what he feels when he learns of his father's death "Dear friend: it is true that my father has died (…) my son's love resists believing it (…) my thoughts cannot turn away from that pain. I am 16 years old but all the energies of my soul are awake to mourn my father as a son and as a Cuban."

In this letter the ideal of José Francisco is demonstrated to travel to Cuba and follow the path of glory and honor, he preferred to die there in the bush alongside those who were with his father in the difficult moments of the insurgent field.

In a letter to Manuel Mercado on October 12, 1896 Carmen Zayas Bazán tells him: "Pepe has been struggling for a year between the desire to go to war and the pain in which I will be left (…) here I thought to make him an engineer (…) I have wanted with my tears that my son would forget his desire (…) but I have become convinced that he has not forgotten his ideal…"

Through these lines one can appreciate the resolution of the Apostle's son to follow the example of his father, he is not held back either by his mother's tears, nor by the pleas of the members of the Cuban Revolutionary Party who try to make him see the advantages of staying in the United States so that he could build a future for himself with his career.

Pepito escapes from the affectionate vigilance of Dr. Coroalles and presents himself at the house of Dr. Raimundo Menocal who understands his just decision and facilitates his boarding in the first expedition heading to Cuba. He boards for Cuba. The expedition reaches the East. Due to circumstances of the war itself he could not meet with Commander-in-Chief Máximo Gómez to whom his mother had recommended him, he joins the troops of Lieutenant General Calixto García Iñiguez, as a simple soldier, the Marquis of Santa Lucía wanted to attach him to the Government Council of the Republic of Cuba in Arms.

The young man also received the horse, Baconao, that his father had ridden on the fateful day of his death. Pepito begins to serve as a common soldier, until his initial services earn him promotion to second lieutenant on April 22, 1897, signed by Calixto García in Flores de Holguín.

Four months later, Cuban troops besiege Tunas de Bayamo and with them goes Pepito, who was under the orders of Captain Portuondo. Under a hail of bullets both advance and Portuondo falls dead. Then Pepe takes charge of the cannon and aiming at the Spanish powder magazine fires successfully causing it to fly through the air.

This military feat earns him promotion to Lieutenant on August 30, 1897, with this note in the handwriting of General Calixto García: "For his heroic conduct serving at the cannon, in the taking of the city of Tunas de Bayamo"

Pepito ends the war as a Captain, signed on February 10, 1899, recognizing his seniority in rank from August 18, 1898. He is discharged from the Liberation Army on August 24, 1898.

During the first two years of the American Intervention, none of Martí's supposed friends remembered his son, they ignored him and the young man discharged from the Liberation Army, without resources to live obtained a modest and poorly paid job in the Havana customs, which did not allow him to cover his expenses and continue his law degree which he only studied until the 2nd year. In 1902, in the early months he works in the national library to be able to support himself and support his mother who lives with him.

On the eve of the change of power Gonzalo de Quesada proposes him a position in the Army's Aide-de-Camp, so on May 20, the day of the establishment of the republic José Francisco Martí Zayas Bazán commanded a cavalry regiment. He was appointed Chief of the Army General Staff and Interim Head of the same during the government of José Miguel Gómez.

Due to his industriousness and honesty he rises until reaching the rank of Major General, retiring to accept the position of Secretary of War and Navy in the government of Mario García Menocal. He resigned shortly after.

He was a member of the Armed Forces of the Republic for 19 years, he did not meddle in political struggles, but was dignified and just, principles that he instilled in his subordinates.

In 1921 he begins to leave Cuba for the United States as he is afflicted by a pulmonary illness and doctors recommend him other climates.

The Lyceo Artístico of Guanabacoa appoints him Associate Faculty Member on June 16, 1939 as a worthy tribute to his illustrious father who had also had this appointment.

In 1916 at 37 years old he marries María Teresa Bances, a very beautiful young woman of refined education with whom he was happily married for 29 years, until his death on October 23, 1945, from pulmonary emphysema. He had no descendants as he was unable to father a child.

Undoubtedly José Francisco Zayas Bazán was a dignified, honorable and hardworking man, he was not an eminent politician but he was capable of always standing beside justice, the most humble, and duty to the Homeland, thus representing the purest thinking of his father, this is demonstrated in words written by him in a letter to Ramón Vasconselos, in May 1927, referring to the state of his Homeland "… we have to uproot so much rot, so much audacity, so much contempt for our people… I believe I have been able to carry with the decorum and respect that demands that name which weighs so much, Martí."

The Martian ideology contains profound ethical values, although his son was not raised in a stable and patriotic family home these values of his father were followed by the son, which is demonstrated in the actions he carries out throughout his life.

The son of the great man probably felt that tragedy of being the son of the most extraordinary political genius of America. History has been remiss in some cases and unjust to a great extent.